The trend of crimes committed through the use of firearms is ever increasing. In particular, banking institutions, convenience store markets, fast-food restaurants and grocery stores are experiencing a dramatic growth in the number of firearm related burglaries and robberies.
To combat this wave of crime, several systems have been developed. One such system employs a "panic" switch which may be activated during a robbery or burglary. With such a system, a person must physically enable a switch in an emergency situation in order to alert a monitoring station as to the emergency. This type of system has several drawbacks. First, the person subject to the emergency must be within reaching distance of the switch in order to activate it. Otherwise, the system is rendered useless. Second, the person must be in a position to activate the switch without arousing suspicion in a typical robbery/burglary situation. In the event that a person is restrained, activation of the switch may not be possible. Third, the person attempting to activate the switch may be put in additional danger by possibly alerting signal the perpetrator of a crime to the activation of an alarm. Fourth, the switch may be accidentally enabled, causing false alarms which in turn cause further delays to the reaction time of monitoring stations.
Monitoring cameras have also been installed in many locations to combat these types of crimes. While these devices may aid in the apprehension of a perpetrator at some later date, they do little to warn authorities of a crime while it is in progress.
Studies show that an increasing number of crimes are occurring using a "takeover" type of tactic. In these types of crimes, an armed perpetrator fires an attention or warning shot in order to cause fear as well as to demand attention from the victims of the crime.
Many types of devices currently exist to detect gunshots, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,822 to Hirschberg (the '822 patent) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,341,810 to Wallen, Jr. (the '810 patent), both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The '822 patent describes a method and apparatus for detecting weapon fire by examining the propagation velocities of the resultant waves emitted after the discharge of a weapon. In order to properly operate, the device must be located a fixed distance from the muzzle of the weapon being fired.
The '810 patent describes a gunshot detector system capable of indicating the position and range of a projectile discharged from a firearm. The '810 device operates on the principle that certain wave sources in propagating through a medium have their high frequency components attenuated more than their low frequency components.
Both the '822 and '810 patents operate by measuring and examining the acoustic sound waves emitted from the discharge of the firearm. Unfortunately, these sound waves may become distorted as they travel from the source of the emission to the detection device. As a result, the information detected may be inaccurate, resulting in a "false" signal. Further, the '822 device must be located in close proximity to the discharge source in order to effectively operate, making it impractical as a device to defend against crime.
Thus, there is a continuing need in the art for a device capable of detecting the discharge of a firearm in an accurate and efficient manner.
There is a further need in the art for a firearm discharge detection device capable of transmitting an alerting signal to a predetermined location as to the discharge in order for aid to be dispatched to the location.
There is still a further need in the art for a firearm discharge detection device capable of detecting crime while it is in progress.
There is an additional need in the art for a firearm discharge detection device which creates no additional danger to the to a user of the device.